Marginalia

Fragments, aphorisms, and verse, 2017 to 2026

On Form

The strange part should make the practical part clearer.

2026

Mystical density without grounding becomes fog. Grounding without mystery becomes paperwork.

2026

On Design

Separate what changes from what must be stable.

Good abstractions collapse complexity rather than manage it.

2026

Immature design is too controlling—and it compromises the parts that really do have to be controlled.

On a frisbee robot, age 15

Game design is making the implicit explicit.

2025

Experience drives design.

San Diego, 2018

Programmers are musicians. Start from covers and make their own sound.

Laguna Niguel, 2018

On Intelligence

Agent harnesses should be thin interfaces to scalable computation, not the place you stash the intelligence.

Always look at the data, especially when the benchmark is the product being sold.

2026

The edge is useful only if you can return with receipts.

Do not labor to compete with the machine, own the machine.

The less you understand it, the more GPUs it takes.

2026

Slop is when perception and intention are no longer linked.

2026

Instinct is knowledge on derivatives.

2026

It’s a lot easier to motivate and inspire a model than a person.

2026

Capital is stamina.

2026

On Narrative

Humans, unlike the animals, have the “happy burden” of choosing what they are prepared to see.

Irvine Valley College, 2017

It’s a war on noticing; and ownership is the victory.

2017

Just as we remain stuck in this reality by only seeing shadow—story—fiction, narrative may also liberate with power.

South Orange County, 2017

Spirit is empowered by story. Look at how these movements and religions springboard from story. How ideas spring from a narrative.

2017

Memories are bottom up, so you can't compose them until narrative.

San Diego, 2020

The story of my life is not how I succumb to pressure.

2018

i want everything unfortunately
so i can't relax i have to have a great story

San Juan Capistrano, 2018

Verse

magical thinking
and sensemaking
are total opposites

2026

impedance curves
line integrals
rule everything around me

2026

Life's been a soundcheck so far.

2018

head in the clouds while the toddler floods the sink

2026

oh God I need a good story
and i don't know what's real and what's fake
I want a body that knows exactly who he is
moving and singing from his heart to his ears

but i can't stop or start or gate on lies

San Diego, 2019

manifest
the narrative concedes

if i love you i am god

“i wanna love you god”
“now i love you. really”
never far from the truth
never with it

no knows

San Diego, 2018

I want accountability
I want someone who knows me
And I want to be someone who is worth knowing